<HTML>When Bill announced that he was to give he talk on Ray I wrote to all the mail artists who were on the Fake Ray Johnson Weekend email list in case some might be able to attend.
Mark Bloch was able to attend. Before the terrorism of yesterday he sent me some answers to my questions about Bill's talk. He promised to send more, but then the horrors broke out. When he sent word that he was OK he said I could post the following initial interview.
Here are Mark's responses to my questions about Bill's talk:
honoria: Was focus on Ray or did he also talk about the Mail Art Network?
Mark: well... yes it was about Ray.
honoria: Did he show any of his collection?
Mark: yes he showed two pieces from his collection - one postcard in which he referred to the scale of ray's work, and the other was the Oedipus Elvis piece which he brought along for people to see first hand a ray johnson, I think.
The rest were slides of his collection which were wonderful. Most I had seen but a few I hadn't and I certainly hadn't heard him talk about them in such detail. he brought slides of three works referring to Rimbaud which are some of my favorites.
The lecture was over when the slide projector jammed toward the end of the allotted time which seemed quite Ray Johnson-esque IMHO.
Honoria: What was the main theme of the talk?
Mark: Themes? The themes were wonderful and plentiful
a few:
friendship and love
"you got a poem not a biography" a direct quote from Bill which is a great way of summing up ray's unique method for avoidance of factual details when it comes to probing interviewers' questions. I have been thinking of this lately and he's right on.
Upside down
Water, of course, and a bit of urine
art world and the repudiation of it
I could say a great deal more but not in a rush. I will give a more thoughtful response later that you can post.</HTML>
